Our president, Joyce, will give up the gavel to our incoming president. Join our annual pot luck lunch at the Arboretum as we end our year and applaud the accomplishments of the Raleigh Garden Club. New officers will be installed. Presentation of club awards will also be part of the program.

Lynn will educate members on how essential oils can be used in your home and garden for natural pest and disease control, to promote healthy plantings, and for first aid support for you while working in your garden. Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade (CPTG) essential oils are used for medicinal purposes, as well as for uses in and around your home and garden. Because they are safe and effective, essential oils provide an alternative to harmful chemicals.

For the past 3 years, Lynn has helped others through the use of natural solutions. Lynn enjoys teaching others how to use essential oils and teaches classes as well as individual wellness consults. Lynn is a member of Westwood Garden Club in Winston-Salem, and a student National Garden Club Flower Show Judge.

Also, we are all going to show off a bit of our gardens this month. Everyone! Bring one bud vase with a “pretty” from your garden. It can be a single flower, a leaf, or if you wish a mini bouquet. You can take flowers from your garden and mix with foliage – don’t forget to think about houseplants ... so bring something.

Russ Stephenson will present a program on his great-aunt Isabelle Henderson’s talents as an artist and gardener. In 1937, she created a magical enclave of Colonial Revival dwellings and outbuildings combined with display and working gardens in the style of the 1930’s. Russ and his wife Ellen have embarked on a restoration according to the color photos and slides that Henderson produced in the 1950’s and 60’s. The over thirty years of physical records of her work at her Oberlin Road home is a treasury of early 20th century American garden design and architecture.

Russ graduated summa cum laude in Environmental Design in Architecture from NC State’s College of Design. In the 1980's Russ assisted with the property's National Register of Historic Places Nomination. During those years, Russ also studied horticulture and landscape design under JC Raulston. The last 12 years, Russ has served on the Raleigh City Council, where he brings his architectural and urban design training to the challenges of a growing city.

Bertram Whittier (B.W.) Wells was an NCSU professor in the early twentieth century and was one of the first scientists to write and lecture about ecology. Wells introduced North Carolinians to the extraordinary tapestry of "natural gardens" or wild plant communities, within the state's borders back in 1932. He grew curious as to how plants are related to each other and the environment! What we now know as the field of “ecology.” Brian will tell us more about B.W. Wells and his influence on teaching others the importance of understanding and protecting wild places.

Brian Bockhahn has worked with the North Carolina state parks for over 20 years. He is a lifelong nature lover whose projects include organizing eagle scouts to enhance nature trails along Falls Lake, tagging monarch butterflies during their migration, and coordinating over 150 Audubon Christmas Bird Counts! Brian was instrumental in the revitalization of the B.W. Wells Association, which manages Rock Cliff Farm where Wells and his wife lived in their retirement years.

Steven Taras, owner of Watered Garden Florist, has been in the floral industry for over 20 years, starting as a buyer in the wholesale market before graduating to floral design. His philosophy is to incorporate his client’s vision and personal style with seasonal blooms. He combines his passion for the art with his remarkable communication skills, displayed in demonstrations and lectures in many settings, e.g. the NC Museum of Art, Umstead Hotel & Spa, Duke Gardens, and many garden clubs.

Though his business base and residence are in Raleigh, client events have taken him to venues across the nation, including Minneapolis, Chicago, Washington D.C., New York City, and the US Virgin Islands. His always-interesting plant material comes from both local growers and sources around the world.

Longtime gardeners in this area may remember when no palms were seen in landscapes. Now we see them frequently. What has changed and what palms are the most likely suspects for your gardens? The presentation will answer some of these questions.

Dr. Swab is a botanist and professor emerita of biology at Meredith College. Her interests are in plant studies and travel for plant study and teaching. She enjoys being a member of the Hidden Hill Garden Club and in retirement continues to teach as an adjunct at Meredith.

Whether it’s ground-level lights that give your garden a dramatic night-time flair or mood setters to enhance a patio or deck, you’ll find more choices of outdoor lighting fixtures than ever before. Take a look at lighting ideas to make your garden magical. Erica will cover the use of LEDs, the latest controls, approaches, projectors, and lighting techniques for different effect.

This presentation deals with the challenges facing gardeners during this time of rapid climate change. Climate change predictions are now becoming possible at community or local levels. But how do we address and adapt to these? A brief history of climate change issues will be followed by environmental impacts of global warming, and how gardeners can adjust today to take steps for the future.

A native of Durham, Stefan has lived in Tanzania and Ecuador where he studied tropical ecology and the effects of deforestation on plant and animal diversity. He has been a landscape designer specializing in the use of native plants since 1995 . In 2002, he became curator of the Blomquist Garden of Native Plants at Duke Gardens. Bloodworth has written and lectured extensively over the past 13 years on a variety of subjects associated with the appreciation and conservation of native plants and their habitats.

Foodscaping visionary Brie Arthur looks at under-utilized garden spaces and sees places where food can be inter-planted with ornamentals for a new way of sustainable landscaping that embraces both beauty and utility. Learn how pairing edibles in a traditional ornamental landscape adds purpose to everyday spaces while cutting down on maintenance. The best edible and ornamental plants are featured to inspire attendees to create their own purposeful landscapes.

Brie Arthur studied Landscape Design and Horticulture at Purdue University and has over a decade of experience at nurseries such as Plant Delights and Camellia Forest. Brie has been dubbed a revolutionary for her leadership in the suburban Foodscape movement. In 2017 Brie received the Emerging Horticultural Professional Award by the The American Horticultural Society, and published her first book.

Our President, Joyce, will introduce a new club year. The Committee Chairs will present their plans for the upcoming club year. Erica Winston will present a short history of The RGC since its founding in 1925. Come explore the many opportunities to join in the club projects, educational opportunities, and enjoy re- connecting with your fellow gardeners. Pick up your Yearbook!

Ways & Means: Time to Plant Fall Annuals! Coupons will be sold for flats of fall annuals and potted mums to spruce up your garden or patio. Plants are available through Campbell Road Nursery. Details are in The Leaflet.

Join the festivities as we end our year and applaud the accomplishments of the Raleigh Garden Club. New officers will be installed. Presentation of club awards will also be part of the program. We will have the traditional Potluck lunch and meet at the Arboretum.

Note location change. This meeting is at the Ruby McSwain Education Center at the JC Raulston Arboretum.

How does one interpret a painting or express a theme through the ephemeral medium of floral design? Choosing appropriate containers, design type, colors, and most importantly, plant material, can be daunting. Successful experience participating in the North Carolina Museum of Art’s recently established and very popular Art in Bloom event has given our speaker unique qualifications to address this fascinating challenge. Ms. Marchesi will guide us through her thought process as she puts together designs with her own creative style.

Photo of Angela's 2016 Art In Bloom floral arrangement used by permission of Carolina Rocheleau.

Doug will present a program on the NeighborWoods Tree Program, a partnership between Raleigh and its residents, and how we can become involved. He will also give an overview of the city’s cultural resources and explain the Memorial Tree Program.

Doug’s gardening interest began at an early age, following in the shadows of his grandmother. He holds a degree in Forest Management and served 16 years as a NC Forest Ranger. He became an ISA Certified Arborist in 2004. In January 2016, Doug began working with the City of Raleigh as their Tree Planting Coordinator.

The WakeNature Preserves Partnership recently named its first seven WakeWonders, the most outstanding natural areas in Wake County. Our speaker, John Connors, will take us on a photographic journey to explore the unique features of each of these natural wonders. In addition, he will tell us about the WakeNature Preserves Partnership and their efforts to identify ecologically valuable, publicly owned open spaces within Wake County, and to build capacity for appropriate management and long-term stewardship of these areas.

John Connors, retired from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences where he was the Coordinator of the Naturalist Center, is the chairman of the Steering Committee of the WakeNature Preserves Partnership. He is a very active and engaged member of the Wake Audubon Society where he has twice served as president. In 2013, he was the recipient of the Audubon NC Bird Lore Conservation Education Award. John stays busy leading nature hikes, giving presentations, and compiling the Wake Audubon Christmas and Spring Bird Counts.

EXTRA! White Elephant silent auction with items donated by our members. You might find just what you need! And what you bring may be a treasure to another member!

Tony Avent has brought world-renown to his nursery of rare, unusual, and native perennial plants. In addition to running Plant Delights Nursery, Tony Avent is a plant breeder who is best known for his Hosta breeding program, but is actively breeding other genera as well. He also travels the world on plant hunting expeditions to search for new, rare, and unusual plants. He has won numerous awards, authored several books, and his newsletter is one of the best emails you’ll ever receive on plants and gardening.

Tim will show us how a landscape designer is able to transform the existing landscape to what it could be to fit the owner’s best vision by showing us hands-on with a small project in the lucky winner of the raffle’s yard. See what the latest technology in landscape design can offer: a mobile setup and plans prepared the same day.

Tim Hanauer is Founder and President of Earth Graphics, a unique residential landscape company. He continues to work as an active designer. Tim has applied his 29 years of landscape design experience (21 as a Registered NC Landscape Contractor) to projects developed on three continents. Tim’s pragmatic approach to plant selection and arrangement has developed out of years of constant observation. He specializes in a plant pallet that extends from the coast of South Carolina to the mountains of Virginia.

Extra: Ways and Means book sale from our library of donated books. Win-win. Your purchases support club community projects and you pick up some good gardening books at great prices.

From creating the main holiday table for festive meals with family and friends to bringing the holiday spirit to other table settings in the home, Linda will present a dialogue and slideshow on creating the holiday feeling throughout your home. All settings will include focus on utilizing florals and greenery, both real and faux, and how they pair with other objects on the tables and in the rooms themselves. Some ideas will also be shared for keeping real foliage fresher longer.

Linda Zoffer is the award winning lead designer and creative force at del ZIO Designs Interiors, LLC. (www.delziodesigns.com) Holding a BA from Hofstra University in New York and an MA from New York University, she later attended the Lorenzo de’ Medici Institute in Florence, Italy to study Art History and Fresco Restoration. She is a professional designer member of IDS, DSA and AID. Linda is CQRID Certified & GREEN Accredited. A member of the Sustainable Furnishings Council, Linda is a recognized DesigninGREENleader. She has written articles for the News and Observer, New Homes and Ideas Magazine and the Green Home tour book.

EXTRA! Enter a raffle to be the lucky winner of a complimentary landscape design that will be the basis of our January program: pick one particular area of focus, possibly a small bed area, patio re-do, front porch, etc. and EarthGraphics will develop a landscape design for it.

Bake Sale by the Ways and Means Committee – bid on goodies baked and donated by members.

A bright young star on the horticulture scene, Brie will be presenting a fascinating program on camellias in history. “The Heritage Collection” discusses the fashions, storied histories and characters behind iconic Camellias from around the world. Brie is promoting and growing living pieces of history to connect a new generation to the past. Learn how camellias shaped history from Ancient Asia, into the Renaissance period of Europe and finally into the new world of America during the Antebellum era.

Brie is a former Production Manager at Plant Delights Nursery and Propagator and Grower at Camellia Forest Nursery. Originally from southeastern Michigan, Brie Arthur studied Landscape Design at Purdue University. She is the Foodscaping and Landscape Design correspondent for PBS’s Growing a Greener World, providing practical advice on integrating edibles in a traditional landscape.

EXTRA! Brie will be selling plants from her Heritage Camellia Collection at the meeting. (Cash or Checks payable to Brienne Gluvna)

Ways and Means holiday gift sale--.members and local merchants will donate items. Bring your treasures to sell and find others to buy.

Conifers are a diverse group of plants, much more complex and interesting than the Christmas trees that immediately spring to mind. Conifers can add an exciting dimension in your garden – bringing color and wonderful shapes to specimen plants. Joan will cover the many shapes of conifers and use sizing charts to evaluate the smaller varieties most suited to a garden.

Special Note: Member Plant Sale - bring plants potted, labeled, and priced to sell at our Members-Only Plant Sale. Your donations help fund RGC's activities. More details in the Leaflet.

Program: Celebrating Our Gardening Pleasures and Treasures: Kickoff for the New RGC Year

Speaker: Joyce Moses, Raleigh Garden Club President

Our President, Joyce, will start off the club year. She will introduce Helen Yoest, who will give a 5 minute presentation on a new foundation in Raleigh: Bee Better, which helps homeowners build better backyards for birds, bees, & butterflies. They are holding their first annual Bee Better Garden Tour Sept. 10th.

Then Committee Chairs will share their planned activities for the club’s upcoming year. Come explore the many opportunities to sign up for club activities and learning opportunities, as well as fun getting to know your fellow gardeners. Pick up your Yearbook. We’ll wrap up with a 5 minute presentation on the Pleasures and Treasures of the Raleigh Garden Club by Erica Winston.

Be ready to take coupons for Campbell Road Nursery flats of plants to sell for Ways and Means fund-raising. We’ll continue sales in Oct, too. Details to be explained at the meeting.

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are frequently in the news, but what exactly are these organisms and why are they the subject of so much debate? Dr. Chad Jordan, a professor in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at NC State, will share information on how these organisms are produced, their application in agriculture, and some of the issues surrounding their use.

Dr. Jordan received his BA in Biology from UNC Asheville and his doctorate in Botany from NC State. He is Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Professor in the department of Plant and Microbial Biology.

Join RGC past president Ginny Parker as she shares with us her experiences in Boston, MA, at the 2011 World Flower Show, sponsored by the World Association of Flower Arrangers. Imaginative, spectacular, beautiful--and even bizarre--are adjectives that may come to mind when viewing the creative designs from around the world. The World Flower Show is held every other year in cities around the world and may not return to the US for a number of years. Enjoy this chance to experience the show!

Katherine will talk about including many NC plants – some familiar and some you may not have thought of – into all sorts of garden areas: Piedmont meadows, hillsides, streamside or shady nooks. She has been cataloguing and championing native plants and knows them better than most anyone in the state.

An author and lecturer, Katherine has served on local and national boards including the Plant Conservation Alliance, the NC Native Plant Society and the NC Plant Conservation Board. She has lectured across the country on a variety of plant topics and was selected to receive the Foster Award for Excellence in Herbal Literature for her book The Herb Society of America’s Essential Guide to Growing and Cooking with Herbs (LSU Press, 2007). She edited the NC Native Plant Society newsletter for many years and is a regular contributor to other publications.

Helen is a garden enthusiast, first and foremost. Her Raleigh garden, "Helen's Haven," became the basis for her career as a garden consultant and her popular blog, Gardening with Confidence. She is sought after as a speaker at green industry gatherings and elsewhere, and is the author of several books, including one due out in spring 2016. Her own photographs often illustrate the texts.

The Irregardless Café was Raleigh’s first vegetarian restaurant and then evolved to the Local Foods movement, providing fresh-from-the-farm meals. They support eating “lower on the food chain.” The spring of 2012 saw the purchase of an urban garden three miles from the Cafe that has become the Well-Fed Community Garden. Hear how this 1.5 acre garden, on a main Raleigh thoroughfare, grows produce organically and follows sustainable agricultural practices, supplying the Cafe, its catering business, the garden’s volunteers and low income members of the surrounding community.

Bring new spark to your holiday decorating with ideas from Cydney Davis-English, owner and lead designer of Raleigh's The English Garden. In this fun, informative program, Cydney will share design ideas and a few tricks of the trade she has gathered throughout her career as a third generation florist.

Whether you have a small patio or several acres, planning how you want to use your outdoor space will help you create a landscape that accommodates your lifestyle. Developing the optimal garden goes far beyond choosing appealing plants. Incorporating social and dining areas, meditation or relaxation zones, play areas, water features, pet areas, and any other special desires is equally important. Planning your garden space in advance will also help you create natural connections between spaces, convenient indoor-outdoor living, zones for compatible plant types,

Leslie Cohen, CKD, CID, AID, ASID, has been redesigning spaces most of her life and has been owner and principal designer at Leslie Cohen Design for the past 26 years. She has won over 40 awards and her work has been featured in magazines such as Better Homes and Gardens, Luxury Living Magazine and Builder Magazine. Leslie primarily focuses on residential properties, particularly remodels.

Nicaragua is the largest country in Central America but the least known when it comes to its birds. While its coffee is more familiar to us, many consumers remain confused by the various labels used today. Join Research Curator John Gerwin from the Museum of Natural Sciences as he helps clear up the coffee confusion. He will also highlight some of the birds of the coffee-growing region. John does research on the life cycles of migratory birds, with a focus on breeding biology. He has been co-leading annual ecotours to Nicaragua since 2005 and has been engaged in bird-banding activities there since 2010.

Raleigh Garden Club

Raleigh Garden Club

The Raleigh Garden Club, Inc. is a non-profit philanthropic and educational organization founded in 1925. Our objectives are to:

Study the art of gardening in all its aspects

Aid in the protection and conservation of natural resources

Assist in educating youth through programs and scholarships

Promote the maintenance of gardens and arboretums

Our general meetings are on the first Wednesday of each month in Raleigh, NC at the NC State University Club. We welcome guests and new members from the greater Raleigh area including Apex, Cary, Fuquay-Varina, Garner, Morrisville, Raleigh, Wake Forest, Wendell, and Zebulon. View our calendar for monthly programs.

Join us and enjoy the benefits of membership:

Develop friendships with other gardeners and share your experiences at our monthly meetings and social events